Youtube Admits Cryptocurrency Ban A 'Mistake,' Videos Already 'Reinstated'

A few days after a ban on crypto-related videos that shocked the crypto world, YouTube is now saying that it was all a mistake.

On Monday, YouTube did the unthinkable by restricting and even deleting videos that have something to do with cryptocurrencies. Sure enough, influencers who have a significant following on the video-sharing platform were stunned and irked because of YouTube's unexpected move.

The crypto community was left to speculate on whether YouTube had done this as a security precaution or as an all-out refusal to publish anything that promulgates cryptocurrencies like Facebook's crypto-ad ban in 2018.

One of the affected crypto influencers was Chris Dunn, who protested on Twitter that YouTube had deleted most of his videos. The Google-owned company claimed that he was putting out "harmful content" as the reason for taking down Dunn's videos.

Node Investor, which is another YouTube channel, had a video posted two years ago removed for breaking Community Guidelines. And even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin experienced the same incident as his video was also labeled as containing "harmful content."

But YouTube seems to have taken a step back in its rash decision as a spokesperson for the company said that what it all was is a mistake.

"With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call," the spokesperson said. "When it's brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it."

However, despite the fact that the video-sharing site is claiming that all videos have been reinstated, crypto site Decrypt observed that it wasn't the case. Dercypto reviewed the sites of DataDash, Ivan on Tech, Sunny Decree and Boxmining and noticed that all the channels were the same since the ban: empty. It was only Sunny Decree's "EMERGENCY: COORDINATED ATTACK AGAINST BITCOIN & CRYPTO!!!" video that was available.

As for Dunn's situation, YouTube approved most of his appeal, but only some of his videos were actually reinstated. He tweeted that he woke up with another strike on his channel and that all prior videos were removed again, but the same "appeal approved" status shows.

His latest update on this ongoing imbroglio with YouTube is this tweet, saying: "5/ Just noticed today's new strike is gone and a FEW videos are back (but dozens are still missing)."

YouTube's move had triggered plenty, especially those in the crypto space, to say that another alternative or a decentralized platform is the solution.

Y Combinator founder Paul Graham warned, "Think twice about building a business on a platform some other company controls. The more popular the platform is, the less compunction they'll feel about crushing you."